Chet Forte
Postdoc
Posts: 2974
Reg: 03-02-08
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 04-01-24 06:26 AM - Post#366784
In case anybody missed it, our great Coach Brett Boretti’s Lions rolled over Penn, the preseason favorite, in a three game sweep in which we scored something like 35 runs and absolutely battered Penn’s pitching staff. And we did this without our best pitcher, Andy Leon. This puts us at 5-1, having taken the earlier series against Harvard, 2-1. Please don’t let anybody tell you that coaching doesn’t matter, that Columbia can’t be a winner, or that our facilities are inadequate.
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Columbia 37P6
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Posts: 2180
Reg: 02-14-06
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04-01-24 12:56 PM - Post#366787
In response to Chet Forte
RIGHT ON! I watched both games on ESPN+ and the remarkable improvement of the Columbia Baseball Team in all aspects of the game during approximately the last 30-45 days was on full display. The bats wee booming, the pitchers were firing, and the fielding was precise. Brett is just a great coach and the pitching coach is really good also. Not to take anything away from Penn which is also a very, very good team, but the Lions were just ridiculous this weekend. And this was all without several of our best players.
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PeteD
Masters Student
Posts: 557
Loc: California
Reg: 03-13-07
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04-01-24 02:05 PM - Post#366790
In response to Columbia 37P6
Boretti has established Columbia as one of the most successful baseball programs in the northeast. They haven’t had a sub .500 record in Ivy play since 2011, and they have a few NCAA tournament wins under their belt.
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Chet Forte
Postdoc
Posts: 2974
Reg: 03-02-08
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 04-03-24 04:55 PM - Post#366916
In response to PeteD
Another excellent in depth analysis on our MBB team from Coach Boretti. What a contrast from the drivel that somebody puts together for Engles once every blue moon. One huge gap in the Boretti report—no mention of our excellent pitcher Andy Leon. anybody here know what’s going on?
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Columbia 37P6
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Posts: 2180
Reg: 02-14-06
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04-04-24 05:58 PM - Post#367007
In response to Chet Forte
One of the many reasons I like Ryan Young, the Columbia Baseball announcer, is that shares information on the status of the players with Columbia fans. I don't remember what he said about Andy Leon, but he has told us that Cole Hage cannot play in the outfield yet because he had surgery on his arm in the 0ff-season. Very promising freshman pitcher Payton Soske is currently unavailable. I just don't remember what he said about Leon, but he will probably clarify Saturday what's happenoing. Another great hitter, Seth Dadar, is not seeing action for whatever reason. Separately,the recruiting copany, Perfect Game, indicated this week that Columbia has recently received a commitment for next year from another very promising pitcher in Florida. The Lions have some very interesting prospects including a 6'4" 225 lb shortstop from North Carolina as well as the two Florida hurlers and some others. Among other things Brett is a great recruiter.
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Chet Forte
Postdoc
Posts: 2974
Reg: 03-02-08
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04-04-24 07:34 PM - Post#367014
In response to Columbia 37P6
Brett doesn’t rebuild; he reloads. The way we dominated preseason favorite Penn was a sight for these old eyes. If only our MBB team had a similar leader.
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Columbia 37P6
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Posts: 2180
Reg: 02-14-06
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04-04-24 09:23 PM - Post#367018
In response to Chet Forte
As far as Lucky Jim is concerned, I was under the impression that for various reasons the absolute latest date for making a coaching change was March 31st. That date having now passed, I assume that we are lucky enough to have him return for still another year of outstanding achievements. With hindsight, I suppose no one on this Board or any other Ivy League Sports Board has any idea why Jim has not been let go despite his losing record year after year. What is particularly interesting this year is that certain new factors appear to be in play. First, it seems that Jim lucked out again as the Lions do not appear to have lost anyone in the Transfer Portal other than the three graduating seniors one of whom never played this season. That's a tremendous break for the Lions as their Ivy League opponents obviously have suffered major Transfer losses. Second, in early March some people interested in Ivy League Basketball suggested that Jim or someone on his staff had successfuly recruited four or five highly promising players who were bound to make an immediate impact in the Ivy League. However, if that were the case, you would expect the incoming class to be rated very highly by whomever rates incoming classes. So it is a bit confusing that the one rating service that has been referred to in this forum shows Princeton, Harvard and Brown as having the three top incoming classes in the Ivy League. I am uncertain what to make of that. Maybe you or someone else reading this post can explain what that means. Did the rating service only rate those three schools, or did the rating service review all eight schools and Columbia, Penn, Cornell, Yale and Dartmouth did not make the top three?
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Chet Forte
Postdoc
Posts: 2974
Reg: 03-02-08
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04-05-24 01:24 PM - Post#367055
In response to Columbia 37P6
We have no credibility. Thus, our recruiting classes by definition will always be deemed as suspect.
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Columbia 37P6
Postdoc
Posts: 2180
Reg: 02-14-06
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04-06-24 11:30 AM - Post#367083
In response to Chet Forte
I understand your reluctance to believe that anything relating to Engles stewardship is true and valid, but dispute all of Engles's many faults, I am still bleeding Columbia Blue and hoping that the incoming class will be talented enough that even an Engles coached team will be a winner. That being said, the quality of the incoming class should be based entirely upon the players themselves so it is rather strange that Columbia's class apparently is not rated as highly as that of Princeton,Harvard and Brown. Am I missing something or are their classes simply better than our incoming class? Separately, nowadays, how does one get on the mailing list for any Columbia sport? I assume you have to make a donation and I stopped doing in all sports several years ago due to my feelings about Engles being rehired despite his 1-13 Ivy records.
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internetter
Postdoc
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Loc: Los Angeles
Reg: 11-21-04
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04-08-24 12:15 AM - Post#367091
In response to Columbia 37P6
Baseball team took all three at Dartmouth this weekend.
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Chet Forte
Postdoc
Posts: 2974
Reg: 03-02-08
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04-08-24 06:53 AM - Post#367092
In response to internetter
Baseball scored 47 runs in three games. Incredible hitting display and in most of the series the pitching stood up. One question—the last game saw a meltdown in our pitching in the bottom of the 9th, with Dartmouth scoring 9 runs. Although we had put 19 on the board and still won by 5 or 6, whatever happened in the bottom of the 9th? Did Brett just go to the bottom of the rotation to give a few guys a chance to throw? One more querstion—where is Andy Leon?
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Columbia 37P6
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Posts: 2180
Reg: 02-14-06
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04-08-24 01:45 PM - Post#367113
In response to Chet Forte
Yes, he definitely went to the bottom of the rotation in the ninth inning with a 15 run lead and the results were not encouraging.
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Chet Forte
Postdoc
Posts: 2974
Reg: 03-02-08
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04-11-24 09:27 AM - Post#367262
In response to Columbia 37P6
Another blowout —14-2 over Fordham. Big test this weekend against Yale at home.
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PeteD
Masters Student
Posts: 557
Loc: California
Reg: 03-13-07
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04-28-24 04:49 PM - Post#367879
In response to Chet Forte
Columbia (15-3, 23-14 overall) swept Cornell this weekend... 14-11, 14-2, 13-0 to clinch the #1 seed. Combined with their 31-0 thrashing of Seton Hall on Wednesday, the Lions outscored their opponents 72-13 this week.
With 5 regular season games remaining, they already hold the season homerun record (79) breaking the record set last year (72).
This might be Boretti's deepest lineup ever... eight players have at least 100 AB and all have an OPS greater than .900. Five of the eight have at least 9 homers and four have a slugging percentage of at least .680. As a team, their slugging pct is an insane .591. The current team record is .531 set in 1984.
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Chet Forte
Postdoc
Posts: 2974
Reg: 03-02-08
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04-28-24 07:12 PM - Post#367890
In response to PeteD
The pitching in games 2 and 3 was lights out. In game 1,Cornell tacked on some runs in the bottom of the 9th when the game was essentially over and a number of starters had been pulled. Still no Andy Leon—I wonder about his status.
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